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What is a 13-digit GTIN Number And Why is it Important For A Retail Product?

If you’re planning to sell your products in a retail market and want to ensure its effective movement in the supply chain, you need to have a 13-digit GTIN number encoded in your barcode of your product.

For a manufacturer, a GTIN or barcode number labeled at the back of the product packaging is an important thing to consider before introducing its product in the market. This key enables him to easily manage and identify his products across the globe.

Let’s understand what GTIN is and why it is important for your products.

Global Trade Item Number
(GTIN) is an internationally recognized code to identify trade items that uniquely identifies products globally and fetch accurate and efficient product information when scanned at the billing counters in a store or at a warehouse when receiving goods. GTINs are also used in pharmaceutical drugs, where they are scanned while administering medication in a hospital to enhance patient safety or scanned while effecting receiving or despatches at hospital stores to maintain inventory, ensure faster processing.

Most commonly used GTINs are 13 digits code, known also as EAN code. Also, there are several different types of GTINs used on products. This includes:
  • GTIN 12- The GTIN-12 is encoded in UPC barcodes, which are predominantly used only in America and Canada. However, North American and Canadian companies have steadily been updating retail Point-of-Sale systems to be able to scan GTIN-13 and GTIN-8.
    If your trading partner still cannot scan these numbers, only then you will need to use a GTIN-12.
  • GTIN 13- European Article Number (EAN); 13 digit code used in the rest of the world including India. GTIN 13 (barcode number) in India starts with 890.
  • GTIN 8- Allows a smaller barcode to be used on smaller retail trade items.
  • GTIN 14- Used on general distribution trade items, not intended to be sold at the Point-of-Sale.
All GTINs, irrespective of their different digits or codes, have a similar structure under which each GTIN digit is made up of 4 components. The first component is Country Code which varies from country to country; second part is Company Prefix, the length of which is functioned according to the company’s coding needs; the third component is Product Code, which is assigned by brand owner to uniquely identify the product and the fourth component of GTIN is Check Digit, which is based on the previous digits and ensures that the GTIN is constructed properly.

Benefits of labeling your products with GTIN number:

By virtue of identifying your products with a GTIN number, you can:
  • Gain increased visibility of your product pages in Google searches
GTIN numbers when also used in product pages help you achieve better SEO results by improving visibility to your product pages in Google search results.

According to Google, database sheets with GTIN codes are classified at a 40 percent higher click rate and earn 20 percent more sales.
  • Free barcode management through DataKart service
With having a GTIN number on product, you can easily assign and manage your GTIN numbers through a free access of GS1 India’s DataKart service. It will allow brand owners to upload product information from a one centralized location and its advanced features enable sharing the product data with multiple suppliers in one go in their respective native file formats/structures.
  • Facilitate exports of your product worldwide
As GTIN numbers are internationally recognized, you can easily export your products across the globe with GTIN numbers, eliminating the need to identify your products any differently for export purposes.

GS1 and GTIN:

If you want your product to be recognized in the marketplace, you need to have a GTIN code on the back of it, encoded in a barcode/RFID. GS1 — the global supply chain standards organisation, only authorized body provides unique and universal identification to products through GTIN.

GTINs can also be used to uniquely identify products at different packaging levels; for instance- at the customer unit level, at the inner pack of the product, and at the carton/pallet.

After realizing the importance of GTINs in the supply chain, mostly all the brand owners are now labeling GTINs on their products to boost their visibility in the marketplace so that they can sell their products on various platforms.

Buy GS1 Barcodes and reap all the benefits of GTIN number.

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